Thong

ARTICLES ABOUT THONG BY DATE - PAGE 3

It's a fading underwear star, swept aside by red-hot boy-cut briefs. The thong is the Britney Spears of underwear, once hot, now not so much. I know. I know. I don't understand it either, fellow thong lovers. Suddenly I feel out of step, like someone still talking about Nicole Kidman when the rest of the world is talking about Katie Holmes. Katie who, you ask? I know just how you feel. Boy-cut underwear for women perplexes me as much as that star-crossed relationship.

We've all done it. Bought a pair of shoes that feel great in the store. But then, within moments of hitting the street--after the shoes can't be returned--we realize they feel like ground glass rubbing into our tender tootsies. The worst is when this happens with a pair of shoes purchased for the explicit purpose of blissful comfort. I am speaking, naturally, of the lowly flip-flop. How hard could it be to take a piece of rubber, attach it to another piece of rubber and turn the whole thing into a summer sandal that feels so good you think you're barefoot?

They looked just like the shoppers lingering around the vestibule of the Eddie Bauer store at 600 N. Michigan Ave. -- until they stripped off their clothes, stood on benches and began shouting about killer oxfords. Christy Brown was the first on Saturday afternoon. She peeled off her pink blazer and khaki pants -- nude save for tape over her nipples and thong underwear. Katie Houlahan and her young nieces (3, 10 and 15) happened to be sitting 2 feet in front of her. Their eyes widened a bit at the 6-foot-tall spectacle standing before them, they giggled, then casually stood and exited the store.

Moviegoers are going to see a lot more of Ashton Kutcher--and not just because of the film projects he has in the works. The "Guess Who" star will appear nearly nude in his new flick, "A Lot Like Love," something Kutcher said he wasn't quite comfortable with, entertainment Web site darkhorizons.com reports. "It's really not that great for me," he said during interviews for "Love." "For other people, I like them being nude, but not me so much. It's this awkward thing, and you're completely exposed.

Overwhelmed by undergarments? The Guy Page has the solution this Valentine's Day: a tutorial with a panty professional. "Men can feel pressured when they enter a lingerie store. They can get flustered and walk out with things they don't want," said Sara Fishman, owner of Cheeky Fine Lingerie, which is hosting the testosterone tutorial on Feb. 12. "We make it a no-brainer." Men's most common mistake is not knowing their woman's sizes. They tell Fishman, "My girl is shaped like you."

By Dahleen Glanton, Tribune national correspondent | November 27, 2004

Gaoda McFadden still wonders what all the fuss is about. The way the 16-year-old sees it, the principal overreacted by ending his school's homecoming party early because kids were dancing, well, the way kids dance. Like many of his friends at Stephenson High School, McFadden sees nothing wrong with bumping and grinding on the dance floor or being sandwiched between two girls with their hips gyrating against him. After all, he said, you can turn on MTV or Black Entertainment Television and see it all day. "It wasn't at all like what they tried to say. It was juicy," said McFadden, a junior who was present last month when Principal Morcease Beasley abruptly ended the party because of what he called "disgraceful dancing."

Dear Amy: It appears to me that my wife equates growing older with our youngest child growing up. She has decided to hold him out of preschool this year and "probably" next year too. I strongly believe that he needs to be socialized like his older siblings were in a preschool setting, away from us for at least a couple of hours a day. I fear that he may end up turning into a socially inept beast! Everyone has a need to be needed, and I believe I am doing a good job being an active part of our family, but it seems that nothing will change my wife's decision -- to the detriment of my youngest child.

The Atlanta-based punk band Treephort got into trouble at a downtown Flint, Mich., club when lead guitarist, Joe Klein, dropped his pants and set his thong on fire. Klein then removed the thong and scurried around the stage naked as the bass player also stripped. They were yanked offstage by club management. Treephort concerts routinely feature members dousing a thong with hairspray before igniting it with a lighter, singer Lee Satterfield said. "We're professionals, we know what we're doing."

When a group of political activists gather to disseminate information about the alleged dangers of genetically modified organisms, recruit new members to their cause and share a meal of organic foods they--quite naturally--get naked. And they play Twister. It's Friday night at Buddy, an alternative art gallery in Wicker Park, and THONG (Topless Humans Organized for Natural Genetics) is celebrating their community while spreading their message and shedding their clothes. "THONG is not about lobbying or letter-writing," says co-founder Just Joking Jerry, a middle-age trial lawyer who, tonight, wears only a flame-imprinted thong with matching mask.